As m.d. of the almost 90-year-old agency David Higham AssociatesAgents for the negotiation of all rights in fiction, general non-fiction, children's fiction and picture books, plays, film and TV scripts (home 15%, USA/translation 20%, scripts 10%). Represented in all foreign markets. Preliminary letter and return postage. All adult submissions should be typed with double line spacing on one side only of A4 paper and pages should be numbered. Be sure to include a covering letter; a full plot synopsis of the proposed book; the first two or three chapters of the book; a CV and a stamped addressed envelope. Founded 1935, Lizzy Kremer isn't afraid of a little hard work and says what's crucial is 'a keen sense of unseen advocacy and active engagement with publishers'.
Links of the week April 8 2024 (15)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
15 April 2024
The secret to a great agency? Lizzy Kremer leans forward with an almost conspiratorial air and says: "It's the admin."
The David Higham AssociatesAgents for the negotiation of all rights in fiction, general non-fiction, children's fiction and picture books, plays, film and TV scripts (home 15%, USA/translation 20%, scripts 10%). Represented in all foreign markets. Preliminary letter and return postage. All adult submissions should be typed with double line spacing on one side only of A4 paper and pages should be numbered. Be sure to include a covering letter; a full plot synopsis of the proposed book; the first two or three chapters of the book; a CV and a stamped addressed envelope. Founded 1935 (DHA) managing director is only half-joking. The swashbuckling side of agenting matters, of course-the multi-publisher auctions, inking TV and film deals, helping authors on their journeys, which, if luck and skill meet, includes bestseller lists and prizes. But doing the hard work of ensuring authors get paid what is due-which, as any agent or writer will tell you, is rarely straightforward-is the bedrock.
Kremer says: "Part of what originally drew me to DHA was a diligence about the business of agenting. And that means a keen sense of unseen advocacy and active engagement with publishers, plus a kind of fearlessness about asking difficult questions.
Claire Wilson is enjoying a remarkable purple patch, with her own clients flying high - and she now has wider influence as the newly minted president of the Association of Authors' AgentsThe association of UK agents. Their website (http://www.agentsassoc.co.uk/index.html) gives a Directory of Members and a code of practice, but no information about the agencies other than their names. The association refers visitors to the UK agent listings from The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook on the WritersServices site..
There are good runs, then there are good runs. Claire Wilson is having the italicised kind: she is the reigning British Book Awards (aka the Nibbies) Agent of the Year, saluted for shepherding clients - including Alice Oseman, Katherine Rundell and Hannah Gold - to prize podiums and the top of bestsellers lists. And though she did not put her hat in the ring for 2024's awards, she probably had a better 12 months since she was crowned the Nibbies champ. On a pan-industry level, she has just stepped up as president of the Association of Authors' AgentsThe association of UK agents. Their website (http://www.agentsassoc.co.uk/index.html) gives a Directory of Members and a code of practice, but no information about the agencies other than their names. The association refers visitors to the UK agent listings from The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook on the WritersServices site. (AAA). Meanwhile her agency RCW recently acquired the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency
Special interests: fiction - all fiction for women, sagas, suspense, contemporary, chick lit, historical fiction, fantasy and comic novels; non-fiction
Submission Guidelines:
- Introductory letter
- Synopsis of the piece,
- First three chapters
Please use SUBMISSION/TITLE/AUTHOR NAME in the subject line to avoid spam filters
http://www.carolinesheldon.co.uk/submissions/
Please date your letter and remember to include all contact information.
Permissions:
Requests to pennyholroyde@carolinesheldon.co.uk
(CSLA) adding to the fold the world's biggest picture book star, Julia Donaldson (among many others), while launching a new illustrated children's book division, which Wilson oversees.
Publishers and agents have reported "brisk" trading on the first day of a packed 61st Bologna Children's Book Fair (BCBF), with Young Adult and rom-coms the hot titles, graphic novels on the rise and picture books holding steady, though middle-grade has been called "a tougher sell".
BCBF organisers said the fair opened with 1,524 exhibitors, a jump of 5% on 2023's final total, representing 82 more companies than the last pre-pandemic fair.
Pan MacmillanOne of largest fiction and non-fiction book publishers in UK; includes imprints of Pan, Picador and Macmillan Children’s Books c.e.o. Joanna Prior said that there was a "clear level of optimism and excitement" at the 2024 BCBF. She added: "[Macmillan Children's Books (MCB) rights director] Michele Young has said she has already seen a real interest, and definite appetite to buy, from our international customers; the fair has started really well."
The 61st edition of the Bologna Children's Book Fair opened on Monday, April 8, drawing 1,523 exhibitors from 100 countries and regions around the world. Slovenia is this year's Guest of Honor. Katja Urbanija, who handles international cooperation and promotion at the Slovenian Book Agency, said, "We are especially excited to showcase our illustration." She said that Slovenia has a large presence at the fair, and sales into international markets have been strong. "Hopefully Bologna will give us an extra kick. The world is opening to Slovenian publishing, which is great to see."
Publishers are eager to return to business as usual after the disruption and lingering effects of the Covid crisis. For Rosemary Stimola, owner of Stimola Literary Studio, "It was my first Bologna in five years, since before the pandemic. Everyone is very happy to see people-it feels so wonderful to see faces and hug people."
Judy Brunsek, sales and marketing director at Canada's Owlkids, said, "We're all trying to figure out, what's the new normal? During the pandemic people were going crazy for books. But now all the funding is gone and sales are flatter. What are we using for comparison year over year? The pandemic is finally behind us and I'm thinking this is the baseline year."
After the largely successful London Book Fair in March, this past week's Bologna Children's Book Fair confirms that, at least for the books sector, such events are back in business. Bologna is usually both busy and buzzy-yes, the alliteration plays its part-but this year it was positive and energetic too, its new April date providing the longer run-up that London, for some, lacked. As Rebecca McNally, publishing director at Bloomsbury Children's, told me: "I think the timing, being a bit later this year and after LBF, has helped reinforce it as the main event in the children's publishing calendar."
BCBF organisers said the fair opened with 1,524 exhibitors, a jump of 5% on 2023's final total, representing 82 more companies than the last pre-pandemic fair, with visitor numbers worth watching given how packed it felt in the aisles at times. UK attendees registered a strong international presence, indicative of the growing strength in those markets at a time when the home book trade has become quieter. The parties, for long a feature of a good Bologna, were lively with celebrations for DK, marking its 50th, The Gruffalo at 25, and a Penguin Random House "YA Ball".
The Bookseller - News - Record-breaking year for horror, as trade says fiction getting more ghoulish
Horror is experiencing a literary boom with a record-breaking year of sales, as editors and agents reveal a rise in submissions from the scarier side of fiction.
Nielsen BookScan reported 2023 as the biggest year since accurate records began for the Horror & Ghost Stories category, up 54% year on year by value, to £7.7m. Though it should be noted that the category is relatively small compared to other categories, this year has already started out a massive 55% up on the same period in 2023.
Horror themes are also increasingly creeping into other broader categories such as literary fiction and more commercial thrillers, with the industry describing it as a recurring theme at last month's London Book Fair, with a string of horror-infused literary debuts in particular and more hotly contested auctions.
Horror fiction is having a moment, according to data showing 2023 was a record-breaking year for book sales in the genre.
Between 2022 and 2023, sales of horror and ghost stories rose by 54% in value to £7.7m - the biggest year for the genre since accurate records began, reported the Bookseller. In the first three months of 2024, sales were 34% higher in value than in the same period last year, according to book sales data company Nielsen BookScan.
Horror writers and publishers suggest that the boom is partly due to the political nature of the genre. "Horror is a genre that tends to ebb and flow with what's going on in the world at large, holding up a dark funfair mirror to real world horrors," said Jen Williams, whose novel The Hungry Dark is published next week. "Given we're in a period of unsettling upheaval - wars, the pandemic, climate change - it's interesting that horror is moving back into the spotlight and even reaching a larger audience."
A tech sector dedicated to boiling things down has raised temperatures in some quarters of the publishing world
Hungry for niche knowledge to impress your colleagues? Troubled by the size of a hefty new book? Doubt your abilities to understand complex arguments? Well, today an increasingly competitive industry offers to take away these problems with one product: a book summary app. Since these digital services first promised to boil down a title, usually a nonfiction work, a decade ago, the marketplace has become crowded. So much so that authors and publishers are concerned about the damage to sales, as well as to the habit of concentrated reading.
Until we have a mechanism to test for artificial intelligence, writers need a tool to maintain trust in their work. So I decided to be completely open with my readers
‘Where do you get the time?" For many years, when I'd announce to friends that I had another book coming out, I'd take responses like this as a badge of pride.
These past few months, while publicising my new book about AI, God-Like, I've tried not to hear in those same words an undertone of accusation: "Where do you get the time?" Meaning, you must have had help from ChatGPT, right?
The truth is, it is becoming harder and harder to resist help from AI. My word processor now offers to have a go at the next paragraph, or tidy up the one I've just written.
'Becoming an author has made me a more understanding and empathetic editor'
James Logan's debut fantasy novel, The Silverblood Promise, is out on 25 April with Jo Fletcher Books. It's the first in The Last Legacy series and follows Lukan, the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered, he vows to unravel the mystery. Logan is also an editor at Orbit Books.
The Silverblood Promise is my love letter to fantasy fiction and adventure stories. While I've always enjoyed the high fantasy trope of heroes on quests, it's the grimy, gritty settings usually found in low fantasy that appeal to me the most, so I wanted to try to put these two elements together. Then it was just a case of packing the story with as many of my favourite things as possible: mysterious artefacts, scary monsters, lost civilisations and a dash of sharp wit. I essentially wrote the sort of book I love to read.
The Irish author on the allure of Elizabeth Jane Howard, the brilliance of Bernardine Evaristo - and why she won't be revisiting Philip Roth
The book I discovered later in life
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Written in the 90s but I didn%u2019t discover them until 15 years ago. What magic transforms a book into a compelling, moving, unputdownable read? I don%u2019t know, but whatever it is, these five gorgeous novels have it. The characters! I cared about them so much. They behave in interesting, venal, believable ways. They%u2019re recognisably human: frustrating, flawed, lovable. Maybe my favourite books ever.
Novelist Louise Jensen on how her own experiences with the supernatural influenced her new novel, The Intruders
The supernatural has always fascinated me. I remember, as a child, my Aunt Sally taking me to our local spiritualist church. At the time, I had struggled to make sense of how generic statements from the medium such as ‘I have a man trying to make contact, who has brown hair', or ‘I have an elderly women here who used to like cake' could result in so many raised hands, so many tears.
So much hope.
A little knowledge about her real life protagonist, writes Leeanne O'Donnell, was just enough
Sparks of Bright Matter is set in 18th-century London and rural county Cork in Ireland. It weaves historical fact with fiction and follows the fortunes of a character based on a real-life Irishman known as the 'The Last True Alchemist'.
Peter Woulfe lived in Barnards Inn, Holborn during the second half of the 18th century. I started developing a fictional character around him while knowing very little. The things I did know were intriguing. He was a respected scientist, a Fellow of the Royal Society, but behind the closed doors of his immensely cluttered rooms he was secretly seeking the Philosopher's Stone.
Reading John Timbs' English Eccentrics and Eccentricities provided me with some delicious nuggets of information.
I launched my podcast Making It Up nearly three years ago with the goal of interviewing writers not for any particular work of theirs, but to talk to them about their lives. I didn't want to ask them what famous author they want to have dinner with or what their top five favorite books are ... yech. I wanted to know what their childhood was like, what inflection point made them want to write, and to hear about the years of glorious rejection letters. Most readers pick up a book and assume the author has always been an author, and they make gobs of money writing. I wanted the real, raw truth.
After nearly 150 conversations with writers of all backgrounds (from NYT bestselling thriller authors, to hopeful debuts, to historians, science writers and poets), I'm still amazed how much connective tissue binds us writers together. A few commonalities I've evidenced throughout my interviews:
- Most writers can name a specific person or event that happened in their teenage years that made them want to write.
- Writing is less a plan than it is a purpose. Despite all efforts to do anything but write, the act of writing will burrow its way to the surface at some point in a writer's life.
- No one sets out to write because it's a solid business decision...
The author Lynne Reid Banks, known for her novel The L-Shaped Room and her children's book series The Indian in the Cupboard, has died at the age of 94.
She died of cancer "peacefully with her family around her" on Thursday afternoon, her agent, James Wills, said. Her son Gillon Stephenson said she "leaves a massive legacy of wonderful work", adding that every day he "receives messages from people saying what a difference she has made".
Reid Banks was born in Barnes, south-west London, in 1929. In 1940, during the second world war, she was evacuated with her mother and cousin Christopher to Saskatoon in the Canadian prairies for five years.
A survey of 787 members of the Society of Authors (SoA) has found that a third of translators and a quarter of illustrators have lost work to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. Translators are also more likely to use AI to support their work, with 37% of respondents saying they have done so, followed by 25% of non-fiction writers.
The research explores the experiences of those in creative careers with AI systems, and their views and concerns about the future impact on creative careers. The survey's respondents include writers of fiction and non-fiction, scriptwriters and poets - both traditionally and self-published - as well as journalists, illustrators and translators.
Illustrators are the least likely to have used AI in their work, with only one in 10 reporting having made use of its systems, compared to a fifth of fiction writers and a quarter of non-fiction writers. Meanwhile, around three in 10 illustrators and writers say that they have used generative AI to brainstorm ideas, while 8% of translators - and an even smaller proportion of illustrators (5%) - report that the reason they have used AI in their work is because they were asked to by a publisher or commissioning organisation.
It's partly AI, partly a get-rich-quick scheme, and entirely bad for confused consumers.
If you're a millennial, you may remember that specific moment in time around the late 2000s when streaming video technology had just gotten good but there weren't that many legitimate streaming platforms available yet. So if you were a student without a TV and you wanted to watch a show, you would go to a website that aggregated lists of illegal streams.
It would be covered in banner ads and autoplaying video ads decorated with little play button arrows, and in order to watch your show, you would have to solve the puzzle of figuring out which play button to click that would actually get you to your show instead of spiriting you away to a website that sold upsetting porn or amateurish video games. It could be done, but you had to be paying attention, and you had to have the barest modicum of web savvy to do it right.
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